Cadmus M. Wilcox

Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox (20 May 1824-2 December 1890) was a general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. In 1885 he was offered the rank of Brigadier General in the Anglo-Egypt Sudan Army, but he refused.

Biography
Wilcox was born in Wayne County, North Carolina, but he moved to Tipton County in Tennessee at the age of two. He studied at West Point and graduated in 1846, 54th of the 59 cadets. In 1847 he took part in the capture of Monterrey during the Mexican-American War and later fought in the Battle of Veracruz and the Battle of Cerro Gordo. From 1852 to 1857 he was an assistant instructor of military tactics at West Point, and resigned due to illness, before traveling to Europe. He published works on infantry evolution modeled on the Austrian Army after his return.

In 1860 he was sent to the New Mexico Territory, and in June 1861 he left for Richmond when Tennessee seceded from the Union. He was given the 9th Alabama Infantry Regiment and fought in the First Battle of Bull Run, and served in the other major battles in Virginia, such as the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days' Battle. In the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, he led attacks on Cemetery Ridge against the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment, which suffered 82% casualties. After the death of William Dorsey Pender, he was made a Brigadier General and he fought in Virginia for the rest of the war. After the civil war ended, he declined the rank of Brigadier General in the Egyptian Army but was made chief of the railroad division for the government at Washington, D.C. for President Grover Cleveland. He died a bachelor, and his pallbearers were four generals each from both sides of the Civil War, a token of his esteem.